


strange days

by sopaloma



Series: halloween aus [2]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Has this been done yet?, Stranger Things AU, jughead as his 80s loner monster-fighting alter-ego
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2019-01-27 13:38:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12583096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sopaloma/pseuds/sopaloma
Summary: His sister is missing, his dad is talking to Christmas lights and Betty Cooper needs his help.November 1983 is a strange time for Jughead Jones.A Stranger Things AU





	1. rightside up

**Author's Note:**

> title from The Doors, "Strange Days"
> 
> my second halloween au, just in time for the day itself! this contains major spoilers for season one of stranger things. you've been warned.
> 
> i'm hoping to get the second part up by the end of this week, but i've been really busy lately so i can't make any promises. also, a quick note - polly has been aged down in this. unfortunately, only jughead has a younger sibling in the show but i needed a few more kids
> 
> i hope all stranger things fans enjoyed/are enjoying the new season! i loved it :) and i hope all bughead shippers enjoy this little, spooky au!

  
i.

"Jug?" He spins towards his dad, backpack in hand. "Have you seen your sister? She's not in bed."

He frowns. "No. Are you sure she isn't outside? Or maybe she's already on her way to Polly's."

"Maybe," he agrees but his face is still pinched with concern. "Her bed doesn't look slept in. Do you think she would have snuck out to the Coopers?"

"No way. She's a good kid, dad. I'm sure whatever's going on, she has a good explanation." Jughead grabs the remaining slice of toast from his plate, and mumbles, "Gotta go," as he shoves it into his mouth.

They part ways that morning, heading to work and school, completely unaware of the night that lays ahead.

Because Jellybean's hasn't been slept in. There's a chance it never will be again.

 

 

 

Betty swings her locker open and gives Ethel a pointed look.

"You're being ridiculous. I'm not going to change just because I'm with Archie now."

"Whatever you say," Ethel replies with raised eyebrows. She's not buying it for a second.

A loose sheet of paper slips out of Betty's locker and onto the ground. She picks it up, notices the message scrawled on the front.

_Meet me in the storage closet by the cafeteria._

Her mouth ticks up in an unconscious smile and she hears Ethel sigh.

"You're going to meet him, right?"

Betty looks up, apologetic. "I'll meet you before first period, I promise."

"Sure thing," she says with a roll of her eyes. "Have fun, I guess," she calls over her shoulder as she walks away.

Betty feels a twinge of guilt but it's quickly pushed down by anticipation. She walks over to the closet, glancing around before she slips inside. It's dark with no overhead light and she jumps when she feels two arms slide around her waist.

"God, you scared me!" she gasps, hand covering her racing heart.

She can make out his smile in the darkness, a flash of white teeth. "Sorry, babe. I'm just excited to see you."

She melts against him, smiling against his lips as he kisses her.

"Me, too."

 

 

 

His dad makes phone call after phone call, pacing the living room as he demands to speak to Sheriff Keller.

"My girl is missing! When are you gonna start taking this seriously?"

Jughead chews at his thumbnail, leg bouncing. He eyes his dad warily. He looks more unkempt than usual, dark shadows beneath his eyes and stubble so long it could be considered a beard.

"You're not fucking listening to me!" he yells into the receiver.

They haven't seen Jellybean in two days.

It doesn't seem like she's ran away. Her bike is here, propped up against the side of the trailer, and so is her backpack, all of her clothes. The only thing that's missing is her walkie-talkie.

He's asked around but nobody has seen her, not even her friends. "She'll turn up," they assure him, "She's probably just hiding out in the woods."

Jughead isn't listening to any of it. He can feel it in his gut - something is very, very wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ii.

Betty sees him after second period, pinning 'missing' posters up on the school announcement board.

"Poor bastard," Reggie mutters with no real sympathy. "It's one thing to be trailer trash but to have your little sister go missing? The guy's life is tragic."

She ignores him and Archie's answering comment, and walks over to Jughead.

"Hey," she says softly and he turns to her, surprise coloring his face.

"Oh, hey, Betty."

"I'm really sorry to hear about JB. Polly is so upset. I keep telling her that things will be okay, that the police will find her soon."

"Yeah... maybe," he mutters, turning back to the board to press another staple into the poster.

"Jug," she murmurs, a nickname she hasn't used since they were kids. "I really am sorry. And if you ever need to talk, I'm here."

He nods, offers her a small smile. "Thanks, Betts."

 

 

 

Ethel watches Betty pierce the beer with the knife and quickly duck beneath the spray, catching the liquid in her mouth. Reggie and Cheryl cheer her on as Archie watches her, impressed.

"Nice," Archie grins, kissing her after she's swallowed the beer.

"Hey, you want one?" Reggie asks, holding one out to her.

She shakes her head. "No, thanks. I'm good."

"Okay," he shrugs and turns to raise his eyebrows at Cheryl who snorts.

She stares down into the glowing water of the pool, watching her feet move against the blue light. Betty settles down beside her, dipping her legs in.

"Are you okay?" she asks, nudging Ethel's shoulder with her own.

"Yeah," she answers automatically, although it's not really true.

She shouldn't have come tonight. Betty had told her that it might not be her scene, that Archie's friends could be annoying, but she had insisted anyway. Ever since she and Archie had started dating over the summer, she'd felt her pulling away from her. Betty was her closest friend, the girl she spent all her time with. She didn't want to get left behind.

"Okay, well, grab a beer if you want one. Let loose a little," she smiles as she stands.

"Hey, Betts!" she hears over her shoulder and suddenly Archie is sprinting towards her, grasping her around the waist and pulling her into the water as he falls.

She breaks through the surface, spluttering as she gasps for air.

"Archie!" she yells, splashing him in the face as he laughs. The annoyed expression on her face quickly dissolves into amusement and she accepts his kiss when he swims towards her.

"Can I have one of those?" Ethel asks Reggie, pointing towards the beers in his hands.

He smirks, "Sure thing," and hands one over.

Ethel struggles to open the can, hissing as she slices her finger on the jagged edge of the small opening. A few drops of blood drip from her fingertip. She takes a long sip, ignoring the couples around her.

In the woods lining the yard, Jughead wanders through the trees, flashlight in hand, searching for his sister.

 

 

 

Jughead spins around at the sound of the crack, pointing the flashlight straight ahead, but finds nothing. He shakes it off. He was definitely alone in the woods; it was probably an animal.

He continues on, occasionally calling out Jellybean's name. There is light up ahead, through a parting in the trees. He walks towards it, frowning when he hears voices.

Beyond the tree line, Jughead sees a soaking wet Cheryl Blossom leading Reggie Mantle inside Archie's house. They're both unsteady on their feet, drunk on the beer cans that are scattered around the pool.

At the end of the diving board, Ethel sits alone, head hung low and feet dangling over the edge.

Jughead lifts the camera hanging around his neck and aims it towards the pool, capturing the shot. He hears more voices then and looks up at the second-storey windows, noticing the outline of a girl. A light switches on and he can see her clearly - Betty Cooper.

He knows it's wrong, an invasion of her privacy, but he can't stop himself from shooting a few pictures, admiring the way the light creates a perfect silhouette.

Betty never had to know about his little crush.

 

 

 

Betty follows Archie into the house, shivering in the towel.

"Come on up," Archie says as he begins to climb the stairs. "You can borrow some of my clothes."

"Betty, wait."

Betty turns to Ethel, disapproval clear on her face.

"Go on up, Arch. I'll be there in a sec." She turns back to Ethel. "What's up?"

"Are you seriously going up there with him?" she asks.

Betty refrains from rolling her eyes. "He's my boyfriend, Ethel. And besides, nothing's going to happen. He knows that."

Ethel buries her hands in the pockets of her coat. "Whatever. Can we please leave soon? I want to go home."

"You can go. I'm gonna stay. Archie can give me a ride home."

Ethel hesitates, gaze dropping to the floor. "Oh. Okay."

"Ethel." She looks up. "I'm not ditching you, okay? It's just one night. We can hang out tomorrow."

"Alright," she nods, but doesn't say any more. She's not entirely convinced.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Betty smiles before heading up the stairs.

Ethel sighs, defeated, and heads back out to the pool. She would hang around for a half hour, in case Betty changed her mind and wanted a ride. Plus, the pool was kind of nice. She wishes her house had a pool.

 

 

 

"Turn around," Betty orders and giggles as Archie slaps his hands over his eyes. "And no peeking," she adds as she peels her wet sweater over her head.

The sweater falls to the ground with a slap and Betty crosses her arms over her chest, shivering against the chill in the room.

"Archie," she murmurs, feeling both vulnerable and bold in her pink, lace bra.

Archie turns to her, mouth falling open slightly as he takes her in.

"Damn," he breathes out. Her lips quirk up.

He crosses the distance between them and places a hand against her neck before he kisses her. It's a good kiss, slow and sweet. She likes how his hands feel on her bare skin, tracing the newly-exposed flesh. In the four months that they've been dating, things have been pretty innocent. They've always been fully-clothed and he barely got his hand up her shirt before she pulled away. _This_ is new and exciting.

He backs them up towards the bed, laying her across it before he settles between her legs. They continue to kiss, his mouth warm and talented against hers. It's not until she feels his hardness between her legs, pressing into her as he unconsciously thrusts, that she begins to pull away.

"Archie," she says against his lips. "Archie," she repeats and pushes at his chest, and he pulls back.

His eyes flicker over her face. "What? Are you okay?"

"I should probably go home before my mom gets suspicious." Her teeth scrape over her lip. "Can you drive me?"

He sighs and pulls back, collapsing onto his bed with a groan. "Sure. No problem."

She borrows one of his shirts and pulls it on quickly, feeling embarrassed. The heady atmosphere has disappeared and now she feels kind of stupid for being so forward.

Archie gives her a brief kiss before she gets out of his car but it leaves her feeling cold.

 

 

 

Camera poised, ready to take a shot, Jughead watches the window, transfixed. Betty slowly lifts her sweater over her head, now stood in only her bra. His breath catches and he feels compelled to look away, but not before he sees Archie come into view, taking Betty into his arms as he kisses her.

Jughead knows it's dumb - Betty would never look at him like that - but he can't help the way he feels. Betty was easy to like; she was so sweet and smart, and the only person at school who didn't ignore him or make fun of him. She was the only girl he'd ever been interested in, and while he knew he had no chance with her, seeing her with Archie still hurt.

He takes another shot of Ethel, trying to distract himself, but the flash sparks. He drops it quickly, worried he's been caught, and messes with the settings until the flash is turned off.

A strange hiss echoes through the woods then and Jughead's eyes dart to the pool as the lights in the back yard flicker on and off. He frowns, staring at the now empty yard. Ethel is gone, the diving board empty and the pool totally still.

There's another hiss, another crack of a branch, and Jughead decides to get out of there. He'd already seen too much and the woods always freaked him out, especially in the dark.

He heads back the way he came, beanie low over his ears to ward off the chill of the frigid November night.

 

 

 

Ethel screams out, fingers gripping onto the edge of the empty pool. There's no one around, everything around her now bathed in grey, dirty beyond recognition. It's hazy, thick, white particles floating through the air.

She's in Archie's pool but she's also not. She doesn't understand what's happening, how she got here.

A screech rings out, metallic and chilling. Ethel struggles to lift herself, trying to force her body over the edge of the pool.

The screech is louder, closer, and then suddenly there is a weight around her ankles and she's being pulled away, scream dying out as she's dragged further into the Upside Down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iii.

At first, Betty doesn't think anything is unusual. Ethel never usually missed a day of school and if she did, she always called Betty in the morning to tell her. But she has a feeling that she may be mad at her for kind-of, not-really ditching her at Archie's house. No doubt Ethel will turn up for school tomorrow, Betty will apologize and the whole thing will be forgotten.

After three days of radio silence, of not seeing Ethel at her locker or pulling up in her tiny Volkswagen, Betty grows concerned. Ethel never stayed mad at her for this long when they had a fight, never ignored her for longer than a day. Something was wrong.

Her suspicions are confirmed that night when Mrs. Muggs calls, frantic, asking if Ethel has been staying at the Cooper house, if Betty has seen her since Saturday night. As soon as Betty has hung up the phone - unable to give Ethel's mother the answers she wants - she races outside. She runs to the little clearing in the woods where Ethel had parked her car, hidden from view for fear of her parents driving past and questioning her about what she was doing at the Andrews house.

Betty pulls away the overhanging branches, exposing the clearing, and there in the center sits Ethel's pale blue Volkswagen.

 

 

 

"She probably just hopped on a bus and got out of town," Archie suggests, leaning up against the wall. "I'm sure she'll come back in a few days."

"You're not listening to me," Betty snaps. "Ethel wouldn't just _'hop on a bus out of town'_. And especially not without telling anyone."

Archie sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What do you want me to say, Betty? That she's missing like the Jones kid? That something horrible has probably happened to her?"

She narrows her eyes. "No. I don't. But I _would_ like some support. I'm telling you my best friend is missing and you're being dismissive."

"I'm not being dismissive. I just think you're overreacting."

Betty barks out a humorless laugh. "Overreacting. Right." She slings her bag over shoulder. "You're a real asshole sometimes, you know that?" she yells as she stomps away.

 

 

 

"Jellybean! Jellybean!"

His sister's name is being called from every edge of the forest as the search party comb through the forest. Police officers, teachers, kids, neighbors. People from all over town have turned up, flash lights in hand, to find Jellybean.

"Jughead." He feels a tug on his sleeve and looks down to find Polly Cooper staring up at him, surrounded by two of Jellybean's other friends and a boy he's never seen before. There's a determined look in her eye, one he's seen before on the older, taller Cooper.

"What's up, Polly? Does your mom know you're out here this late?"

"She doesn't need to know," she replies. "We're here to help look for JB and no ones going to stop us."

Jughead shakes his head. "Okay, whatever you say. Just don't get into any trouble. We've already got enough missing kids in this town."

"We won't, we promise," she tells him as they pick up their bikes. They climb back on, walkie-talkies strapped to their backpacks and ride off into the woods. "We'll find her, Jughead. Wherever she is," she calls to him over her shoulder.

Jughead watches them ride away, brow furrowed. He'd never understood the close bond between Jellybean and her best friends - he'd been a loner even at the age of eleven - but he knew she was lucky to be surrounded by people who wouldn't give up on her.

He trudges further into the woods, calling out Jellybean's name. Dread settles heavily in his stomach, anticipating finding the worst out here. Somehow finding nothing at all would be preferable.

 

 

 

Betty falls back into her chair, uneaten lunch in front of her. Archie talks animatedly with Reggie, Cheryl sniggering at whatever they're saying, but Betty hears none of it. Her mind is elsewhere, unable to stop thinking about Ethel and where she could be.

There was no way she ran away. Ethel wouldn't do something like that, and if she did, Betty is sure that she would have told her.

She sighs, crosses her arms across her chest as she stares out across the cafeteria, unfocused. And then, in the corner of her eye, she sees a figure pass between the open doors. Jughead Jones.

He catches her eye and stills. They stare at each other, his face pale and withdrawn as it always is these days, and her features pinched together in thought.

The bell rings signifying the end of lunch and she jumps at the noise. She gathers her things, rises from the table, and when she looks back over to the doors, Jughead is gone.

 

 

 

He holds the envelope of newly-developed pictures in his hand as he heads towards the parking lot. They'd turned out better than he expected, the low light in the Andrews backyard making them moody and atmospheric.

"Jughead!"

He turns at the sound of his name, surprised to see Betty Cooper jogging towards him, ponytail swaying behind her.

"Hey, Betty."

"Hey," she smiles, coming to a stop in front of him. "How's it going? Any news on Jellybean?"

"Nope, nothing. They didn't find anything at the search last night and my dad is slowly losing his mind."

He grimaces, thinking of the Christmas lights strung up around his living room and his dad rambling about Jellybean speaking to him through them.

_"She says she's right here! Right here!"_

Betty gives him a small, sympathetic smile.

"I'm sorry, Jughead. That sucks." She reaches out to touch his arm but pulls her hand back at the last second when she sees him watching the movement. She probably thinks he's uncomfortable being touched by other people when really he doesn't know how to handle being touched by _her_. Even a gesture as innocent as a comforting hand on his arm. "I actually wanted to talk to you about someth-"

Before Betty can finish her sentence, Reggie cuts her off, ambling over to them with a nasty smirk on his face.

"Talking to Jones, Betty? Thought you had higher standards than that."

"Reggie," she says in a warning tone.

"What's that?" Reggie asks, nodding towards the envelope.

Jughead instinctively tucks it behind his back. "It's nothing."

"Doesn't look like nothing."

"Really. It isn't-"

Before he can argue, Cheryl comes up behind him and plucks the envelope out of his hand. She slides out the photos, flipping through them with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, well, well." Her red-painted lips quirk up, a glint in her eye. Jughead doesn't like that look one bit. "Looks like Jones is stalking your girl, Archie."

"What?" Archie frowns as he takes the photos out of Cheryl's hand, the furrow deepening as he looks through them. "What the hell is this?" he demands, holding up a shot of the pool in his backyard. "Were you spying on us?"

"It wasn't like that. I was just-"

"Just what?" Reggie spits. "Watching us from the woods like a fucking creep."

"Archie, I'm sure it wasn't like that," Betty tries to argue but Archie shoves a photograph in her face.

Jughead's eyes close slowly as he sees it. It's a photo of Betty, framed by Archie's bedroom window, in just her bra and jeans.

"Jughead?" she asks, brow furrowed.

He opens his mouth to protest but he doesn't know what to say. It _was_ kind of creepy to take pictures of her without her knowledge but he hadn't gone into the woods that night to spy on them. It wasn't as sinister as Archie was making it seem.

"You're a fucking loser," Reggie says as shoves him in the chest. Behind him, Archie rips up all of the photographs, scattering them across the parking lot.

Jughead's head drops, unable to look at them as the shame and humiliation heats up his face. They walk away, Archie asking Betty is she was coming with. He looks up at her and notices she is staring down at one of the torn pieces.

"I'm sorry, Betty," he murmurs as he turns and quickly walks to his car.

As he settles into the seats, he watches Betty crouch down and begin to pick up pieces of the photographs. He doesn't know what she's doing and he's not about to ask. He just wants to get the hell out of there.

 

 

 

Betty scatters the pieces across her bed, taking the sections that match and placing them on a separate pile. Once she's sure she's got all of the pieces, she lies them flat, trying to fit them together, almost like a puzzle.

She grabs some tape, taping up the edges as she brings the pieces together, until she has a complete photograph in front of her.

It's Ethel, sat on the end of the diving board in Archie's pool. It's dark but the lights in the pool seem to make her glow. Betty stares at the picture for a long time, wondering what happened after it was taken. Her eyes travel over it, taking in the woods in the foreground. And then she sees it.

In the bottom corner, nestled in the woods, is a figure. And even in the grainy quality of the photograph, Betty knows it isn't human.

 

 

 

His dad is pacing in front of the sofa when he gets home, staring up at the alphabet scrawled across the wall and the lights hung above each letter. He ducks under another string of lights as he walks into the living room.

"Dad?"

FP spins around. Dark bags sit heavy beneath his eyes and the hair covering his chin is so long it could be considered a beard. He looks tired, unkempt, like he hasn't slept in three days. He's pretty sure he hasn't.

"She talked to me again, Jug. She said she's scared."

Jughead sighs, "Okay, dad. I'm going to my room," and slams the door shut behind him as soon as he's inside.

In the privacy of his bedroom, he flicks through the cassettes in front of his stereo until he finds the one he's looking for - The Clash.

As the opening strum of _Should I Stay or Should I Go_ begins to play, he stretches out across his bed, hands tucked beneath his head. He thinks about a time not too long ago, he and Jellybean sat on this bed, heads bobbing along to the music as it drowned out the sounds of their parents fighting.

It's a sad memory, but strangely, also a good one. Their parents hadn't stayed together for much longer after that but the bond between him and his sister had only grown stronger. They found comfort in each other while their parents screamed and shouted behind closed doors.

He taps his foot to the beat, a smile pulling at his face as he thinks about that day. Wherever she is, he hopes she is also listening to this song and remembering the good times they had together.

Hours later, there's a knock on the door. It's persistent, left unanswered as his dad continues to stare at the lights in the living room. He switches off the stereo and heads out to open the door, surprised to find Sheriff Keller there.

"What's going on? Is there news?"

The sheriff's mouth turns down into a frown, expression stern, but Jughead can see the pity in his eyes.

"Get your dad, kid. You need to head down to the river."

 

 

 

They stand among the crowd that has formed around the river, breaths cold and white in the chilly November air.

The rescue team emerge from the water, a gurney between them, and Jughead's heart lurches into his throat as he sees the body lying across it.

Jellybean. His beautiful little sister.

"No, no, no," his dad mutters beside him. "It's not her. It can't be her. I talked to her an hour ago. It can't be her!"

"Dad!" he cries, clutching onto his shoulders, forcing him to meet his eye. His vision blurs with unshed tears, voice hoarse as he shouts, "You need to stop! You need to stop this _right now_!"

"But I- I talked-"

"She's dead!" he yells, waving his hand at the river. "That's her body, right there. She's gone! She's fucking gone!"

A tear slides down one pale, unshaven cheek, but his dad doesn't relent. He shakes his head.

"It's not her, Jug. I know I sound crazy, but it's true. It's not her."

Jughead's arms drop to his sides, defeated. He didn't have the energy to deal with his father. He just wanted to make sure his little sister was taken somewhere safe and away from the prying eyes of the town that, until this moment, had never cared less about the kids from the wrong side of the tracks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iv.

"Please, Sheriff Keller, you have to listen to me," Betty begs, following the Sheriff through the precinct.

He comes to a sudden stop and turns to her, his face withdrawn and dark circles clouding his eyes. He looks so _tired_. 

"Look, kid, I know you're worried about your friend but kids your age run away all the time. And right now I need to focus on what's happening in this town."

Her eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"

"Didn't you hear? The Jones girl was found last night, her body washed up on the side of the river."

Betty's stomach knots up at the thought of little Jellybean Jones lying cold and lifeless on the riverbank. She'd holed herself up in her room last night, hadn't seen anyone when she left this morning, hadn't talked to anyone who could tell her the news.

She thinks of Polly, her undoubtedly devastated sister, and Jughead, and Mr Jones, and all of the people in town who will now fear for their children.

But she also thinks of Ethel and the gut feeling that is niggling at her. Were their disappearances related? Had the thing in the woods hurt Jellybean, too?

 

 

 

Jughead shakes his dad awake, pulling him from his uncomfortable position curled up on the couch.

"What time is it?" his dad mumbles, squinting against the sunlight streaming in through the windows.

"It's 9am," he replies. "Come on, you need to get dressed. We've gotta be at the funeral home in an hour."

He dad frowns and rolls over with a groan.

"I'm not going."

Jughead sighs. "Dad, _come on_. We need to go. We need to pick out a casket."

"I'm not going!" FP snaps, turning back to glare at Jughead. "We don't need a casket because she's not dead, Jug. She's not dead."

Jughead can feel the tears welling hot and fast as he crosses the room to pick up his bag. He throws it over his shoulder and gives his dad one last look before opening the door.

"If you're not gonna take care of things, then I will. JB deserves better than this!"

His dad doesn't respond, curling up on the couch again as the trailer door swings shut.

 

 

 

Betty's teeth sink into her bottom lip as she approaches. She's not sure if she's doing the right thing but she can't keep this to herself, especially if it gives the Jones some answers about what happened to Jellybean.

"Hey."

Jughead's head snaps up, eyes widening when he sees her. He weaves through the rows of open caskets and stops in front of her, confusion all over his face.

"Hey..." he says, dragging out the syllable.

"I heard about JB. I'm so sorry, Jug. This must be so hard for you and your dad."

"Yeah," he sighs, hand clenching around the strap of his bag. "It's been a rough couple of days." His face slips into confusion again. "What are you doing here? Did you come all the way here just to tell me that?"

"Actually, I need to talk you. I know it's a bad time but your dad said you'd be here, and I think you might be interested in what I have to say."

He shoves his hands into his pockets, expression no clearer. "Okay..."

"It's about the photographs you took in Archie's backyard."

His gaze drops, ashamed. "Look, Betty, I'm sorry, okay? I promise I wasn't-"

"I don't care about that," she says dismissively. She didn't have time for his self-deprecating routine and he had bigger things to worry about. "I pieced together one of the photographs, the one of Ethel on the diving board, and I saw... something."

"Something?"

"Like an animal," she tries to explain. "But also not. I don't know, it's weird, and now Jellybean has been found and Ethel is missing. It's all really... strange." She takes a deep breath, trying to collect her thoughts. "What I really wanted to ask was - is there any way you could enlarge the picture?"

"Yeah," he answers with a nod of his head. "But we'd need to go to a darkroom. We could use the one at school."

"Okay. When can you do it?"

"Well I'm kind of busy right now," he says, nodding behind him. "But next week, maybe?"

"Right, sorry." She bites her lip again. "I'm sorry, I knew this was a bad time. I shouldn't have come."

"No, it's okay," he assures her. "I could use the distraction."

"Okay." She gives him a weak smile. "Well, next week then. Come find me when you're ready."

"Yeah, I will."

"I should probably go, stop bothering you." Betty turns away then, about to leave, but he calls out to her.

"Hey, Betty! Wait." She turns, ponytail swinging behind her. "Does this thing, in the picture... Do you think it has anything to do with what happened to Jellybean?"

"I do," she admits. "I can't tell you why -  it's just a gut feeling - but I really do."

 

 

 

He stumbles out of his bedroom, rubbing at his eye with his fist as the pounding against the door persists.

"Alright, alright," he grumbles. "I'm coming."

He opens the door, frowning as he finds Sheriff Keller stood in front of him in the early morning light.

"Keller?"

"You alone, kid?"

"My dad's in there," he says, throwing his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the living room. "What's going on?"

The sheriff pushes his way inside and immediately reaches for a red bulb on the string lights.

"Unscrew these," he orders. "And any other lights, too. Unscrew them all."

Jughead doesn't argue or ask questions, just gets to work. Keller seems determined, forceful. It's the only time he's seen him look anything but apathetic and Jughead is intrigued by the change.

They work methodically through the bulbs, taking them out one by one until Sheriff Keller shouts, "Gotcha, you little bastard!"

He looks over, frowning as he sees the small chip between his fingers. He immediately drops it to the floor, crushing it beneath his shoe.

"What's happening?" His dad rises from the sofa, bleary-eyed. They must have woken him up. "What's going on here, Keller?"

"You've been bugged," he replies. "And so have I."

"Bugged?" Jughead scoffs. "By who?"

"I'm not sure but it isn't good." He drops down into the armchair, scrubs a hand across his face. "I went to the morgue yesterday, to get the report on Jellybean's body. I wanted to know if they had found anything. But when I got there, Doiley was on vacation and the broad on reception told me that he'd been instructed by some official from the FBI that he couldn't do the autopsy. They'd send one of their men instead."

"So? What's wrong with that?" Jughead asks, missing the point.

"Why would the FBI want to carry out the autopsy of a twelve year old found in a small town in New Jersey?"

"What are you saying?" FP asks, voice low but sounding more alert.

"I'm saying that body they pulled out of the water - it isn't Jellybean."

FP's eyes gloss over with tears as a small smile pulls at his lips.

"What are you talking about?" Jughead snaps. "We saw the body. We went to identify it after they pulled her out of Sweetwater!"

"I went to the morgue, kid, I had to see for myself. And when I opened the body up... It was full of stuffing, like a toy. It wasn't real."

Jughead is stunned silent, unable to process what he'd just been told. If that body wasn't Jellybean, then what the hell was it? And who had put it in the river? And where the fuck was his little sister?

Jughead waits until the Sheriff has gone before he calls Betty.

"Bring the photograph with you on Saturday. We can talk after the service."

 

 

 

Betty stands beside her mother in her neatly pressed black coat, her arm wrapped around Polly's shoulders. Her sister is silent, face almost expressionless and it strikes Betty as odd. Her mother had told her she was almost inconsolable the night Jellybean's  body had been found, but now there was almost nothing, not even a frown. She shakes it off, accepting that people dealt with grief differently.

She looks over at the Jones men then, both stood in front of the casket. Gladys hadn't come and now they were here, just the two of them, representing all of the family Jellybean had.

They're stoic, solemn, but there's a hardness to Jughead's face that she isn't used to seeing. In the week since Jellybean's body had been found, Betty had ran into Jughead a handful of times, and every time his eyes had been red-rimmed and bloodshot. Now they were a clear blue, intently focused on the coffin as it is lowered into the ground.

They meet behind a large headstone, crouched down out of sight. Jughead's finger ghost across the figure in the photograph, eyebrows pulled together.

"What if I told you that this isn't the weirdest thing that's happened this week?"

"What could be weirder than a mysterious figure in the woods?" she retorts.

"That body we just buried, the one pulled out of the river," he begins, turning to her. "It's a fake body and it's stuffed. It isn't Jellybean."

Betty doesn't know what to say. That _was_ really fucking weird.

 

 

 

She leans against the bench, watching him work. He moves the paper from one tray to the next, tugging her over to watch as the image appears.

"That's so cool," she murmurs, watching the ink darken.

"I know, right."

He lifts it out of the tray and clips it up, hanging it above their heads. They stare up at the photograph, the close-up of the figure in the woods.

"What is that thing?" he murmurs, squinting at the image. 

"Can we get a closer look?" she asks.

He pulls it back down, still damp, and lays it flat on the table. They both lean closer, close enough that their breaths ghost across each other's cheeks.

She looks up at him, eyes following the line of his profile, glowing in the red light. His eyes flicker to hers then and his mouth turns down at the corners when he sees she's watching him.

"What?" he asks self-consciously.

"Nothing," she murmurs, quickly shifting her gaze to the photograph.

Jughead swings the lamp head over, focusing the light on the image. They study it, trying to decipher the shape, trying to make out any distinguishing features.

"Well whatever it is," Jughead says, a slight shake to his voice, "it definitely isn't human. And I've never seen an animal that looks like that."

Betty's eyes trace over the long, spindly limbs and the malformed head. She swallows thickly. No, Betty had never seen an animal that looked like that either.

 

 

 

Across town, in the living room of the Jones trailer, FP sits with a radio in his lap, tears of both relief and pain streaming down his cheeks as a soft, terrified voice sings, "Should I stay or should I go now..."

 

 


	2. upside down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a monster of a chapter! (pun kind of intended)
> 
> thank you for the response to this! this has been really fun to write and i've loved combining two things i love.
> 
> so, second and final part. any comments are appreciated ❤️

v.

Wanted posters go up around town, a new kid's yearbook photo in the center. Ethel's sweet, smiling face is plastered all over town on posters Betty had printed at school.

The police had finally filed a report but there had been little action, and Betty had felt she had no other choice but to put up the posters and publish an article about Ethel in the Blue and Gold. The people that care about Ethel - her parents, her family, her friends - deserve better than lazy police work. And if the cops aren't going to help, Betty will do what little she can.

Being proactive is also a good distraction from her deteriorating relationship. Archie had bern less than supportive when she told him she had to speak to the cops about Ethel's disappearance. He had been more concerned about his dad discovering they were drinking at his house that night than what had happened to Ethel, and had begged her not to mention the party or the beers.

It's been three days since Betty last spoke to him but she's not going to worry about that now. She has bigger concerns. 

 

 

 

She grasps the bat in her hand and takes a swing at the air, checking her stance. She hasn't held a baseball bat in years and anytime she had in the past, she hadn't been intending to use it as a weapon.

Polly and her friends pull up onto the front lawn, drop their bikes and race through the garage, barely passing her a fleeting glance as they run by. There's a new kid with them now, right behind Polly; a boy she's never seen before, integrated into the close group of girls.

They're all running to the basement, no doubt. Polly seemed to spend most of her time there now, if she wasn't out riding through town. She never questioned what was going on down there. She doesn't think she'd get an honest answer if she did. But she understood her sister's desire to keep secrets - she had a few of her own. Namely, that she was about to spend her day in the woods with Jughead Jones.

She takes another swing at the air and jumps when she hears a voice behind her.

"Hope that's not for me."

Her hand rests over her racing heart as she spins around.

"Archie! What are you doing here?

He smiles weakly. "I wanted to apologize for the other day - I was an asshole. Who cares if my dad finds out that we were drinking? Ethel is missing, that's what matters."

She smiles back, glad that they're not about to fight again. "Right. Ethel is what matters."

"Have you heard from her?" She shakes her head. He sighs and tucks his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "I'm sure we'll hear something soon. We just need to stay positive."

"Yeah. Positive," she says with a nod, but she's not sure if she sounds convincing. It's hard to be positive when there's a thing stalking the woods behind her house.

"So what's that for?" he asks, nodding towards the bat.

"Oh!" She looks down, as if she had forgotten it was in her hands. "I'm thinking about joining softball."

"Oh. Okay..." He smiles, amused. "Well, do you wanna catch a movie?" he asks. "The Risky Business pretty boy has got a new flick out - looks pretty good."

Her eyes soften as she takes his hand in hers, the slightest quirk to her lips. "Maybe another day. I accept your apology but I still... need some time."

He bites the inside of his cheek and then gives her a closed-mouth smile.

"That's okay. Call me. I'll be waiting," he says with a wink.

He leans towards her then, as if to steal a kiss - probably out of habit more than anything. Betty dodges his lips and quickly kisses his cheek.

Archie looks slightly dejected as she pulls back and a weird tension hovers between them. They'd just sort of made up after a fight, and in the past it wouldn't be weird for them to kiss goodbye, but right now she found she didn't really want to. She believed his apology and his interest in Ethel was genuine but after his earlier selfishness, she had to admit she saw him differently now. He'd shown her a side of himself she didn't really like.

She watches him leave through the open garage door, head hung low. As soon as he is out of sight, she checks her watch. She had to meet Jughead in fifteen minutes.

 

 

 

He aims, shoots and misses.

"Aren't you supposed to hit the bottle?" Betty teases, backpack slung over her shoulder.

Jughead turns to her, mouth ticked up in a half-smile. "I haven't shot a gun in a while."

Betty smiles and holds out her hand. "Hand it over."

He raises his eyebrows. "Seriously?"

"Gimme," she says with a wiggle of her fingers and he lets out a little laugh as he passes the gun to her.

She positions herself in front of the bottles lined up ahead. She extends her arm, closes one eye and takes a deep breath. The bottle in the center shatters as the bullet hits it. Jughead lets out a low whistle.

"I didn't know you knew how to shoot."

She shrugs. "My mom may look like the perfect lady with her pressed cardigans and her nuclear family but she grew up on the Southside. She knows how to shoot a gun."

"Huh," Jughead says. "Alice Cooper - total conformist but also a badass. Who knew?"

Betty snorts. "Yeah. Right." She holds out the gun. "You wanna practice some more?"

 

 

 

It's getting dark as they head out into the woods, stomping through the leaves and mud and fallen branches. Betty adjusts her grip on the gun, her baseball bat clutched tightly in Jughead's hand who is walking up ahead.

"How's your dad doing?"

"Well he's still talking to the lights and he thinks there's a monster in the wall. So, yeah, pretty good." He lets out a humorless laugh. "I don't want what Sheriff Keller told us to give him false hope," he adds quietly. "That may not have been Jellybean's body but we still don't know where she is."

Betty sighs and takes a few quick steps to catch up with him. She catches his hand in hers and he pauses, turns to look at her in surprise.

"We're gonna find her, Jug. She's alive - you said your dad heard her on the radio. And now we're gonna figure out where she is."

"Do you really believe that?" he asks, voice small and vulnerable.

She nods, smiles. "I do."

They continue further into the woods, neither commenting on their still linked hands that swing between them.

Her thoughts briefly turn to Archie. She thinks about their conversation in her garage and how she had still felt lingering disappointment at his lack of empathy towards Ethel. He had been more worried about getting into trouble than what had happened to her friend and now she had turned to someone else to help her investigate what had happened. It should have been Archie; he should be searching through woods with her right now, ready to take on whatever was lurking in them. But instead Jughead was here, ready to attack this thing - this unknown creature - and find the truth.

There's a loud crack, a pained whimper, and they both spin around, shining their flashlights ahead.

"What was that?" Jughead whispers.

She shivers, the hairs rising on the back of her neck. "I don't know."

They walk towards the sound slowly, carefully. Betty can feel her pulse quicken, blood rushing in her ears. They approach the brush ahead of them, a small gasp escaping her as she spots the wounded deer lying on the ground.

"Oh no," she sighs, grimacing at the deep gash across the animal's stomach.

"It's fatal," Jughead observes. "We should shoot it. Stop it suffering."

"Okay," Betty agrees and lifts a trembling hand to aim the gun at the deer.

"I can do it," Jughead murmurs and she shakes her head in response.

"No, it's fine. I'll do it."

She takes a deep breath, tears welling up as she watches the deer writhe uncomfortably. This was the right thing to do, the kind thing.

Her finger presses against the trigger, ready to pull, when suddenly a low, rumbling growl echoes through the woods and the deer is swiftly pulled into the brush, out of sight.

"What the-" Jughead steps closer, staring down at the now empty spot with a furrowed brow. "Where did it go? What took it?"

"It has to be the creature, Jug," she says shakily.

"Shit," Jughead breathes out, eyes wide with fear.

This was what they wanted - to confront the beast - but now that they were here, facing the reality of it, Betty wasn't sure if she was equipped to handle this.

"I know this is scary but... it's now or never, Betts. Are you still in?"

Betty swallows thickly and nods. "I'm still in."

 

 

 

She follows the path of blood splattered across the ground, flashlight lighting the way. Leaves crunch under her boots as she walks, so focused on the blood that she loses sight of Jughead behind her.

She stops abruptly as the trails ends, now facing the thick trunk of a large tree. There's a faint glow at the base of the tree, a wide opening splitting the wood apart, covered in a strange, slime-like substance. She crouches down to inspect it, runs a finger across the sticky residue.

The opening glows brighter, almost beckoning her. Betty drops her backpack onto the ground, tightens her grip on the gun and, against her better judgement, begins to crawl inside.

When she exits the tree she is once again in the woods but it's different - colder, darker, all of the greenery washed out into shades of grey and blue. Betty's harsh breaths are white in the air, mingling with the thick dust particles that float around her.

_What is this place?_

Betty takes a cautious step forward, ready to explore. She breathes through her nose, trying to stay as quiet as possible and switches off her flashlight. She walks forward, eyes darting around her, and stills when she hears the same rumbling growl.

Her stomach knots up as she looks to her right, searching for the source of the noise. And there it is - the creature.

Hunched over the dead deer, it feasts at it's inside, it's reptile-like skin stretched tight across its spine. It's head is wide, split into four sections, almost like a Venus flytrap, and it's hands are long and finely-boned.

Betty takes a step back, ready to retreat, and jumps as a branch cracks beneath her shoe. She freezes, holds her breath, trying to make herself as still as possible but it's no use. The creature's head snaps in her direction, the sections of it's face fanning out, exposing sharp, pointed teeth as it releases a metallic, blood-curdling scream.

On the other side, a scream echoes around the woods, stopping Jughead in his tracks.

"Betty?!" he yells, breaking into a run as he tries to find her.

He heads back the way he came, his heart lurching into his throat as he finds Betty's backpack lying on the ground.

Beside him, the glow grows fainter, barely visible as the slime around the opening begins to close.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

vi.

"Betty!" Jughead shouts out as he wanders through the area, desperate to find her. She had to be close, her backpack was on the ground nearby.

"Jughead!"

The call of his name sounds both close and far away, as if Betty was right next to him but her voice was travelling across a distance.

"Betty!" he yells again but she's still nowhere to be found.

Betty calls out for Jughead again as she stumbles through the woods. She's frantic, terrified, completely lost in this place that she doesn't understand.

"Jughead!" she screams again but quickly claps a hand over her mouth when she hears rumbling behind her.

She ducks behind a tree, back pressed tight against the trunk as she keeps her mouth covered. There is movement behind her, quick, heavy footsteps. Betty holds back the whimper threatening to escape her, heart racing and chest rising and falling rapidly. A metallic screech rings out around the woods but Betty's stays as still as possible, not wanting to draw attention to herself.

Jughead shines his flashlight around, panic rising in his chest. He can no longer hear her but he did hear a screech, terrifying and unnatural.

He circles back around to her abandoned backpack, shouts out as an outstretched hand shoots through the opening at the base of a tree.

"Jughead!" Betty shouts, reaching out to him.

He kneels down on the ground and grasps her hand tightly, pulling as hard as he can. With three strong tugs, Betty is sliding through the slime and dirt covering the opening, filthy and sobbing. She collapses against him, her weight sending him back onto the ground and his arms immediately wrap around her, clutching her to him.

"You're okay, you're okay," he murmurs, stroking her hair soothingly with a trembling hand.

She clings to his neck, her tears wetting his skin. He holds her tighter.

A few feet away, the opening begins to close, the slime melding together until a layer of bark covers it completely, the passage to the other world no longer visible.

 

 

 

"Is this how it's gonna be now?" Reggie asks as he reclines against Archie's bed, hands behind his head. "Princess gives you the cold shoulder and you go running to her like a little puppy."

"Shut up, Reg," Archie mutters, not in the mood to deal with his shit.

"I'm just saying, you've changed, man."

"Whatever," he grumbles, picking up the bouquet of flowers on his nightstand.

Reggie rises from the bed and wanders over to the window to grab the baseball sitting on his desk.

"Oh, shit."

Archie spins around, brow furrowing as he asks, "What?"

Reggie is staring out of his bedroom window, over at Betty's house. Archie stands beside him, looking across to her own bedroom window, the curtains drawn back and her lamp casting the room in a yellow glow.

She's sat on her bed, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, and beside her, hand rubbing circles into the small of her back, is Jughead Jones.

Archie's hand curls into a fist around the flowers, snapping the end of the stems.

"Guess Princess isn't such a good girl after all."

 

 

 

Jughead is closing her drapes when she enters her room again, damp hair dripping onto her pajama shirt. His beanie is on her dresser, a lock of his hair hanging in front of his eyes now that it's loose.

She looks down at the sleeping bag rolled out across the floor at the bottom of her bed.

"I found it in your closet," he explains. "Do you feel better?"

She shrugs and replies quietly, "I guess."

Jughead slips into the sleeping bag then, fully-clothed, one of her throw pillows beneath his head. Betty slips under her duvet, pulls it up to her chin and curls onto her side. She had hoped her shower would be relaxing, standing beneath the warm spray and allowing her mind to clear. Instead she kept picturing the grotesque face of the creature, the pointed teeth protruding from the center of it's head. She was _still_ picturing it.

"Hey, can you come up here?" she asks shakily.

"Uh, sure."

Jughead settles down on the other side of her bed, on top of the covers, a valley of space between them, but turned towards her.

"It can't get us in here," he murmurs. His words are meant to be comforting but Betty shivers, the memory of the high-pitched shriek ringing in her ears.

"Can you come closer?" she asks softly and after a moment of silence, she hears him shuffle closer, feels the warmth of his body behind her back but not touching her.

"This okay?"

She reaches behind her, taking his hand in hers and pulling it around her, until his arm is locked around her waist and their hands are linked.

"This is okay."

It's quiet for a few minutes, the sound of their breathing the only noise in her room. Her eyelids feel heavy with the effort of keeping them open, desperate to close and let sleep take her. But she can't - not yet. Not when she can still see that thing behind her lids whenever she closes her eyes.

"Lights on or off, Betts?" Jughead asks, warm breath ghosting across the back of her neck.

"On."

 

 

 

Jughead blinks against the sunlight filtering into the room and frowns when he sees the pink, floral pillow beneath his head. He runs his hand through his hair, pushing it away from his face and finds Betty sat up against her headboard, a book open in her lap.

"Can't sleep?"

She shakes her head. "I kept seeing that thing, kept dreaming about. So I gave up and decided to do some research."

"And?" he asks, sitting up to rest against her headboard too.

"That place I was in - I think it lives there. If Ethel is alive that's where she is and probably where Jellybean is, too."

"My dad said he saw a monster in the wall, trying to break through. It could be this thing, the creature that you saw."

"Probably. It would make sense."

"None of this makes sense, Betts," he retorts and she laughs quietly before sadness settles over her features. "You okay?"

"The way the creature attacked the deer, feasting on it's insides... What if that happened to Ethel? It was horrifying, Jug. She doesn't deserve to die and especially not like that."

"Hey, hey," he murmurs, rubbing his hand across her shoulder. "My dad talked to Jellybean yesterday, she's still alive. And if JB is alive then it also means Ethel could be. You can think the worst. Not yet."

Betty nods slowly. "You're right. I need to think positive."

"Why don't you show me what else you found?"

"Okay, so," she adjusts the book in her lap, "I think it was hunting for food last night and it might have been doing that on the nights it took Jellybean and Ethel. And it doesn't hunt in packs, like a wolf, but alone."

"Right, so it's like a bear."

"Kind of," Betty agrees. "But I think it's also like a shark. The night Ethel went missing, she cut her finger on a beer can. What if it's attracted to blood and that's how it finds it's prey? The deer was already injured."

"You've always been smarter than everyone else, Betts," Jughead smiles. "So how can we know for sure? I don't really want to venture into the woods again tonight."

"Me neither, but we can test it. We can bring the creature to us."

Jughead is about to ask her how when the door handle rattles, startling them both. He reaches out for her as he jumps, hand gripping hers.

"Betty?" Mrs Cooper calls through the door. "Breakfast is ready."

"Coming, mom," she calls back.

Mrs Cooper's heels click down the hallway as she walks away. They both breathe a sigh of relief and smile at each other, thankful they weren't caught. Their eyes fall to their still joined hands and they quickly pull away, heat rising in their faces.

"You'll have to sneak out the window," she says, walking over to lift it. "I'll come to your house at eleven. I have a plan."

 

 

 

The drop their armfuls on items onto the checkout of the army surplus store. It's quite the collection - bear traps, nails, chains, a gas canister.

"And, uh, four boxes of thirty-eights," Jughead asks the cashier who drops the boxes of bullets next to the rest of their items.

"What are you kids doing with all of this?"

Betty glances at Jughead and then back to the cashier, eyes wide, face the picture of innocence.

"Monster-hunting."

Jughead throws a sheet over their haul and closes up the bed of his truck. He looks over at her, a little smile on his face, amused.

"What's the weirdest part? Hunting a monster from another dimension or hanging out with me?"

She snorts. "You. Definitely you."

A car slows past them, Moose Mason hanging out of the open window.

"Hey, Betts. Can't wait to see your movie."

Her brows furrow at the comment and he watches as her expression then morphs into horror. She takes off, heading down the street towards the Bijou. He follows close behind, looks up at the sign hanging above the movie theater. In block letter it reads, "Now Showing: All The Right Moves" and beneath it, written in red spray paint are the words, "starring Betty 'the slut' Cooper".

He turns to Betty. Her big eyes are glistening with tears but her mouth is set into a tight, angry line. She's upset but she's also furious.

There is noise then, behind the theater. Betty marches off, intent to find the source and Jughead follows close behind. They find Archie leant up against the wall, joined by his cronies - Reggie, his girlfriend Cheryl, and one of her cheerleader friends, Ginger.

"Did you do this?" Betty yells in Archie's face.

He straightens up, face cold and expressionless, and shrugs his shoulders. The sound of Betty's palm slapping Archie's cheek is loud and sharp.

"Come on, Betty. Lets go," Jughead says, tugging on her arm.

"You should listen to your boyfriend, Betty. Get out of here," Archie snaps.

"Why are you being like this?" Betty asks, voice choked with tears.

"Weirdly, I don't like seeing other guys in my girlfriend's bedroom."

"Nothing was going on," she argues, and technically she's right, but Jughead's fingers still tingle at the memory of Betty's hand in his and her back pressed against the length of his body.

"Whatever, Betty."

"I can't believe you," she cries. "Don't ever talk to me, ever again!"

"Oh, don't worry. I won't," he retorts.

"Betty, come on," Jughead urges and she turns away, heading back towards the street.

Jughead stays close, just wanting to get out of there, when he hears Archie behind him.

"That's right. Fuck off, Jones. Go back to that trailer park where you belong," he taunts. "God, no wonder your sister ran away. A drunk, white-trash dad and a loser big brother. If I was in her place, I know what I-"

He doesn't get a chance to finish his sentence as Jughead spins around and connects his fist with Archie's jaw. He goes down, clutching his face, a murderous look in his eye as he stares up at him. He's back on his feet in seconds, tackling Jughead and throwing him onto the hood of a nearby car.

He can hear Betty yelling behind him, begging them both to stop, but he can't move past the blind rage he feels. He throws punch after punch, only half of them landing, and he feels a small amount of satisfaction as he watches Archie spit blood out of his mouth.

Archie gets one good shot in, right on his cheekbone, before sirens go off and a cop car pulls up.

"Alright, alright. Break it up!" one of the officers yells.

Archie and his friends take off, but before Jughead gets the chance, the officer grabs him.

He is pressed face-down against the hood, hands cuffed behind his back. He looks over at Betty who has her hands on her head, eyes wide with worry and shock. He doesn't say anything as the cop leads him into the back of the car.

 

 

 

Betty approaches with a bag of ice, wrapped in a towel. Jughead sits at the officer's desk, cuffed hands resting on the top and head hung low between his shoulders.

"Hey," she murmurs, taking a seat beside him. "I have some ice."

He looks up, his down-turned mouth turning up into the slightest of smiles. She lifts the bag up to his cheek, pressing it carefully against the swollen, bruising flesh.

"Are you okay?" he asks quietly.

She smiles. "I'm okay."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

viii.

"Why is my son in handcuffs? Get them off him!" FP demands as he enters the police station.

"Mr Jones, we can't do that-"

"Get the kid out of the cuffs," Sheriff Keller orders, then drops a box onto the desk in front of him. It lands heavily, jostling the items inside. "Wanna explain why you have all of this?"

Jughead narrows his eyes at him. "You wouldn't believe me."

"Give me a try."

 

 

 

The sheriff stares down at the photograph, a deep frown settling over his features.

"And this thing... it's attracted to blood?" he asks.

"It's just a theory," Betty confirms. "But yeah, we think so."

FP pulls Jughead outside of Keller's office, face pinched in anger.

"How could you keep this from me, Jug? You should have told me!"

"I'm sorry, dad. I just wanted to help. I couldn't just sit around knowing JB was out there."

"And what if it took you, too?" FP snaps but when Jughead looks at him he no longer sees anger, just anguish. His dad looks like a zombie, unshaven and exhausted and too-thin. He has spent so much of his time worrying and agonizing over Jellybean, and now he was just making everything worse.

"I really am sorry. I know I should have told you."

"You're right, you should have." He sighs and leans forward to grip his arms. He levels him with his stare, eyes bloodshot but serious. "This is not yours to fix alone, Jug. You got that?"

Jughead nods. His father engulfs him in a hug, holding him against his chest. Jughead grips him tightly. In a weird way, this was the most normal he had seen his dad since Jellybean had disappeared. Maybe it's because someone was finally taking him seriously; they actually had a shot at finding her.

Behind them, they hear yelling. They pull apart just as Keller leaves his office and heads out into the station.

"What's happening here?" he demands.

A middle-aged woman turns to the sheriff, her teenage son pressed tight to her side.

"I'm trying to make a statement about a psychotic boy terrorizing my son and your officers aren't taking me seriously."

Keller frowns. "Psychotic boy?"

"He had a shaved head," the boy pipes up. "And he was bleeding from his nose. And he could... do things."

"What things?"

"Make you fly," he mumbles, realizing how unbelievable that sounded. "He's a freak! And he's always hanging around with those losers."

"The losers?"

"Cooper and her friends."

The sheriff turns away from them, ignoring the shouts of the disgruntled mother and finds Betty, still sat on the chair in his office.

"We need to find your sister."

 

 

 

Archie holds the cold Coke can to his jaw, soothing the ache and swelling. The blood around his eye has dried now, crusty and brown. He leans up against the car, trying to ignore Reggie and Cheryl cackling beside him.

"Did you see his face when he went all psycho?" Reggie laughs. "Probably what he looked like when he killed his sister."

Archie frowns, breathes harshly through his nose. He knows he said some horrible stuff to Jughead, had acted like a jerk, but that was too far.

"I wonder if that's the face he makes when he and Betty are screw-"

"Hey!" Archie shouts, cutting Cheryl off. "Why don't you shut the fuck up for once?"

She scoffs. "Excuse me?"

"Hey, man, what's your problem?"

Archie pushes away from the car. "My problem is you're both assholes. You shouldn't have written that stuff, Reggie!"

"I didn't see you trying to stop me."

"Well I should have," he snaps. He barks out a humorless laugh. "God, of course you two are trying to hurt her. Because she's not miserable like the two of you. She's nice. She actually cares about people."

"Wow. The slut with a heart of gold."

"I told you to watch your mouth," Archie shouts and Cheryl's takes a step back, shocked.

Reggie shoves him then, sending him stumbling backwards. "Get out of here, man, before you get your ass kicked for the second time today."

"Don't worry, I'm going," he says as he walks away from the store parking lot, hands curled into fists inside his pockets.

 

 

 

Betty's mouth drops open as she sees the cars parked around her home. Men in black suits march back and forth between her house and their cars, piling boxes into the trunk.

"What the hell is going on?"

"We need to leave," Sheriff Keller says. "They must be looking for Polly and the boy. Do you know where she is?"

"What?" Betty frowns. "Why would they be looking for Polly?"

"That boy your sister and her friends have been hanging around with? The people who run the Riverdale Laboratory are looking for him. I think he's part of this whole thing. I think he knows what's going on."

"Oh my god," she says, trying to wrap her head around all of this. "What are we gonna do? What if they've found her already?"

"They haven't," he states. "They wouldn't have sent that out, if they had," he adds, pointing at the helicopter flying over the woods.

They climb back into Keller's car, out of sight.

"Do you where she could be?"

"No, I have no idea."

"I know how we could find out," Jughead says. "JB's old walkie is still in her room. Maybe we could reach them on there."

Inside the Jones trailer, Jughead looks through Jellybean's dresser drawers, searching tirelessly until he finds the old walkie-talkie. He connects it and hands it over to Betty.

"Polly, it's Betty," she says into the walkie. "Please answer. This is an emergency. Do you copy?" A moment. Nothing. "Polly, do you copy?"

"Tell them we know about the boy," Keller suggests.

Betty sighs and tries again. "Polly, this an emergency. Do you copy?" A pause. "We know about the boy, your friend."

It's silent on the other end for a full minute until static breaks over the device.

"We copy. It's Polly. I'm here. We're here."

 

 

 

Betty is flooded with relief when she sees Polly and her friends climbing out of the sheriff's car.

"God, Pol," she breathes out as she wraps her sister up in a hug.

"I'm okay," she assures her, squeezing her waist.

Betty pulls back, looks over at the three kids stood behind her sister. There's two of her best friends - Midge and Valerie, two parts of the usual foursome - but there's also the boy that she's seen before but never paid much attention to.

He's thin, pale, with a dark, shaved head and dark circles beneath his eyes that don't belong on a child's face. His eyes are wide and dark, expression terrified.

Her eyes flicker down to the old, threadbare t-shirt he's wearing, _Leonard Cohen_ emblazoned across the front.

"Is that daddy's shirt?"

They gather around the coffee table in Jughead's living room. Polly sketches on a piece of notepaper and holds it up for them to see. It's a long line with two words written above and below it; above, it says 'us' and below, it says 'Demogorgon'.

  
"This bit, under here," Polly says, pointing to the section beneath the line. "This is the Upside Down. It's another dimension where everything is a mirror of our world but it's cold, and evil, and it's where the creature lives - the Demogorgon."

"Isn't that something from D&D?" Jughead asks, eyebrows pulled together in confusion.

"Yep. Don't worry about it," Val says dismissively. "What you need to know is, this dimension is below us, but a gate to our dimension was opened by Riverdale Lab and now things living in the Upside Down can enter our world."

"It has a really strong electromagnetic force," Midge adds. "It can change the direction of a compass needle."

"And Twelve can enter the Upside Down using his mind," Polly says, with a strange hint of pride in her voice.

"What? How?"

"He was raised in the Lab," Polly explains, "by some awful people. And he has powers. He can move things with his mind. It's awesome."

Betty is reeling. Her little sister has been running around town with a boy who has  superpowers and she had no idea. And now they were all mixed up in something she didn't understand and quite honestly scared her.

"If you can enter the Upside Down in your mind, does that mean you can find Jellybean?" Jughead asks Twelve, who has remained silent throughout the whole conversation, eyes flickering from one person to the next.

Twelve nods.

He takes a seat at the small kitchen table, the overhead lamp turned on. They gather around, watching intently as Twelve closes his eyes. On the table in front of him lies the walkie-talkie and two pictures - the one of Ethel on the diving board and an old yearbook photo of Jellybean.

Twelve is completely still, focused, eyelids fluttering as his eyeballs move rapidly beneath the thin skin. Above him, the light flickers, surrounding them in momentary darkness. A minute later Twelve's eyes fly open and immediately fill with tears. A small drop of blood drips from his nostril.

"I'm sorry. I can't find them."

He flees to the bathroom and Sheriff Keller releases a loud sigh.

"What do we do now? The kid was our only hope."

Betty's hands curl into fists as she wracks brain, trying to sort through all of the information they've gathered today and come up with a suggestion.

"Hey, Pol?" She looks up. "The night Jellybean went missing - did she hurt herself? Like a cut or a scrape?"

"Uh, she fell off her bike. Cut up her hands. They were bleeding pretty bad."

"You were right," Jughead tells her. "It is attracted to blood."

Twelve enters the room again then, a look of determination on his face.

"I can find them," he tells them firmly. "I need a bath."

 

 

 

Midge scribbles down a list as she chats to her science teacher, phone cradled between her cheek and shoulder.

The words 'Sensory Deprivation Tank' are written at the top of her paper, underlined twice. She thanks her teacher and hangs up quickly before ripping the paper off the notepad.

"Has your sister still got her kiddie pool?" she asks Val, who nods. "We need that and a whole load of salt."

"How much salt?" FP asks.

"Fifteen hundred pounds."

"Where are we gonna get that much salt?" Jughead asks, voicing her own concern.

"I know," Keller declares, and leads them out of the house, with no time to waste.

 

 

 

"What are we gonna do about that thing when we find it?" Jughead asks as he catches a bag of salt and tosses it into the wheelbarrow.

Keller turns to level him with a glare.

" _You're_ gonna do nothing."

"What? But me and Betty found it-"

"Your dad's been through enough. You're not risking your life, too."

Jughead sighs and tosses another bag into the wheelbarrow. They had taken almost half of Riverdale Middle School's salt supply. He just hopes it doesn't snow too hard this winter.

"Were gonna find her, kid," Keller tells him firmly, lifting up another bag. "I promise."

Betty grabs a rock from the ground and smashes it against the lock three times before it finally breaks off.

"Woah," Polly smiles. "Cool."

"Come on." Betty nods towards the now open storage closet.

They grab four reels of hose pipes and drop them into a wheelbarrow.

"So what did he eat?" Betty asks as she pushes the wheelbarrow towards the school gym.

"Candy, chips, Eggo's," Polly reels off and she grimaces.

"Sounds nutritious." She adjusts her grip as she steers the wheelbarrow around the corner. "I knew you were acting weird but I thought it was because of Jellybean."

"And I thought you were being weird because of Archie," Polly shrugs.

Betty shakes her head. "Well, whatever. From now on, no more secrets. We tell each other everything, okay?"

"Okay." Polly comes to a stop and turns to her. "So, do you like Jughead now?"

"What?" Betty's brow furrows and she blinks rapidly as she tries to come up with a response. "It's not- we're not-" She huffs, cutting herself off. "Do you like Twelve?"

Betty wasn't blind. She'd seen the longing glances between her sister and the mysterious boy.

Polly nose scrunches up. "What? No. Eww. Gross."

The sisters look away, uncomfortable, and Polly rushes forward to open the door to the gym. They'd both had enough heart-to-hearts for one night.

Betty connects the pipes to the taps and drop the ends into the pool in the center of the gym. As the water pours into the pool, filling it up, Jughead and Val pour salt into the water, emptying bag after bag. Midge sits at the side, repeatedly dropping an egg into the water until it can float on the surface.

Twelve comes into the gym with Polly and FP then, his face pale with fear. Polly grips his hand tightly until he pulls away to put on the ski mask Midge has prepared, the lense completely blacked-out with thick, black tape.

Twelve lowers himself into the water as they gather around, kneeling beside the pool. Once he has relaxed, Twelve floats freely, moving gently across the water, arms stretched out beside him.

They wait, silent, for some kind of sign. And then the lights flicker, once, twice, before cutting out completely.

 

 

 

Twelve is surrounded by darkness, a black nothingness that never ends. His voice echoes around the space, travelling across the vast expanse. And there, in front of him, is a pile of leaves and branches and dirt.

They watch as Twelve twitches and jerks in the water, mumbling to himself as he is immersed in the other dimension.

"Going, going," he mumbles, panic rising in his voice as he repeats the word over and over. "Going, going, going."

FP takes his hand and pulls him to the edge of the pool, lays a comforting hand on his shoulder, attempting to soothe him.

He relaxes slightly but then the mumbling starts again, faster this time, voice breaking on every other word.

"Castle Jones, Castle Jones, Castle Jones."

Twelve suddenly screams, thrashes about in the water. FP rips the mask off and pulls him into his arms, his hand cradling his head.

"You're okay, you're okay," he murmurs.

Twelve collapses against him, sobbing, a single drop of blood dripping from his nose.

"Alive," he cries. "Not much time but alive."

 

 

 

Betty wraps a blanket around Twelve as he leans his head on Polly's shoulder, exhausted.

Jughead follows his dad outside, wanting to know what their next move is.

"So Castle Jones is your den?" Keller asks.

"Yeah, it's in the woods behind our trailer," Jughead replies. "We used to go there and hide."

"Alright, then. Lets go."

Jughead moves to follow them into the car but FP stops him in his tracks.

"You need to stay here, son. I can't have you putting yourself in danger."

"Are you serious?" Jughead asks, close to yelling. "I wanna help! I wanna find Jellybean."

"We're gonna find her Jug, we will. But I need you to keep yourself safe. Please."

Jughead sighs. "Fine."

He watches his dad and the sheriff leave feeling both disappointed and ashamed. He should be there with them, helping them to find his little sister. Instead he was staying behind like a coward.

When he enters the school again he finds Betty crouched on the floor, back against the wall. He takes a seat beside her.

"Your dad and Keller are walking in there like bait," she says, staring straight ahead.

He can't make sense of the expression of her face. She seems sad but also angry. They had just found Ethel alive, why would she be angry?

"That _thing_ is still in there and we can't just sit here and let it get them."

Jughead looks at her, sees his own desire and determination to find the monster - the demogorgon - reflected at him.

"You still wanna try and find it?" he asks.

She turns to him, green eyes steely and clear.

"I want to finish what we started. I want to kill it."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

viii.

FP struggles out of the guard's grip.

"Get off me, asshole!" he yells. "Where are you taking me?"

They march him out of the interrogation room where he had been held since they arrived at the lab. They turn a corner, into a hallway and FP sighs in relief when he sees Keller at the end, waiting for him.

"They have a gate to the dimension," he begins. "And we can go in, we can go and find the kids, but we're on our own. You up for that?"

FP doesn't need time to think. He already knows his answer.

 

 

 

Jughead opens up the bed of the truck, pulling out the box of supplies. He struggles under its weight, dropping it heavily onto the floor of the living room.

They get to work, setting the place up. Betty loads up the gun, places more bullets in her pockets. Jughead hammers nails into the end of the baseball bat, creating a crude weapon, and shoves his dad's Zippo into his pocket. He pushes the kitchen table up against the window, pours gasoline all over the carpet and drags a chair into Jellybean's bedroom. The fire extinguisher from the kitchen is dropped onto Jellybean's bed. Betty ties one end of a yoyo around the leg of the table and hangs the weighted end over the chair, fashioning a makeshift trip wire.

Jughead carefully locks the bear trap into position, directly in front of Jellybean's door. Betty pulls her hands away from the trap slowly and they both back away, careful not to touch it.

They look around the trailer, admiring their handy work.

Jughead grasps the knife in his hands, nerves kicking in, and Betty holds up her own knife. Their eyes meet, gazes locked. They both want to do this, want to take the situation into their own hands. Quite literally.

"Ready?" he murmurs.

She nods. "Ready."

"On three," he instructs. "One... two... you know, you don't have to do thi-"

"Jug, stop talking."

"I'm just saying-"

"Three!" she yells and winces as the sharp blade slides through the fleshy palm of her hand.

 

 

 

Betty's hands are soft and smooth, so small in his as she wraps the bandage around his palm. He watches her, the shadows her eyelashes cast across her cheeks, the purse of her lips as she concentrates on her task.

Her head suddenly snaps up, eyes wide.

"Did you hear that?"

"It's probably just the wind," Jughead assures her. "When it comes, we'll know. My dad says the lights... blink, kind of, when it's here. Think of them as alarms."

She nods. "Okay. Just look out for the lights."

She pulls the end of the bandage right across his palm and picks up a piece of tape.

"Is that too tight?" she ask softly. The room is quiet and so are they, sat so close, foreheads almost touching, on his couch.

He shakes his head. "No, it's fine."

She secures the bandage with the tape and slides her hand away, fingers brushing across his. She lingers, thumb brushing across the bandage as he smoothes his thumb over her knuckles.

"Betty?" he murmurs.

She lifts her gaze, eyes meeting his. "Yeah?"

He leans in, nerves fluttering through his belly, but quickly jumps back as they hear a loud thud against the door.

He can hear Betty's sharp intake of breath as they both turn towards the door, fear and anticipation taking hold of them.

"Jughead! Open up, man. I need to find Betty! I'll be cool, I promise!"

It's Archie, yelling through the closed door.

Betty rushes over to the door and opens it a crack, just enough for her to slip her head through.

"Archie, you need to leave," she says firmly.

"I just wanna talk," he begs. "I messed up. I wanna make things right."

She pulls the door open further, leans closer to him as she demands, "Archie, you need to go!"

His eyes fall to the bandage wrapped around her hand.

"What happened to your hand?" he asks, voice softer now, filled with worry. "Did he do this to you?"

Now he is angry, shoving at the door as Betty fails to hold him back. He stumbles into the living room, eyes scanning the room, wide with disbelief, staring up at the string lights hung from every corner of the ceiling. His mouth drops open as he sees the plethora of weapons around the room, the traps they've set up.

Jughead jumps up from the couch, baseball bat in hand.

"You need to go, Archie. You can't be here," Jughead yells, trying to push him back through the door.

Archie struggles against him, refusing to move, and they both go still as they hear a distinct click. They look over at Betty who has the gun in hand, barrel now pointed at Archie.

"Betts? W-what-"

"I'm doing this for you," Betty tells him. "You need to go."

"I'm not going anywhere," Archie begins to argue but Jughead doesn't hear any of it, distracted by the lights beginning to flicker above their heads.

"Hey, Betts. It's starting. It's close."

"What's starting? What's going on?" Archie asks but they ignore him as they get into position.

They stand back-to-back, the gun poised in Betty's hand and Jughead with a firm grip on the baseball. The lights flicker frantically, obscuring their view of the living room. Jughead's heart begins to race, adrenaline kicking in.

"Where is it?" he yells and then suddenly there's a crack, a break through the ceiling.

They look up in horror as the Demogorgon breaks through the roof of the trailer and crashes to the floor. Betty takes off immediately and Jughead follows, catching Archie's hand and dragging him along as they race towards Jellybean's bedroom. The Demogorgon shrieks behind them, crashing through the trailer as it chases after them.

Jughead and Archie jump over the bear trap and stumble into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind them.

Betty positions herself in front of the door, Jughead beside her, ready to attack if the creature breaks through.

"What the hell was that?" Archie yells, hands tugging at his hair.

"Shut up!" they shout, spinning towards him.

Jughead adjusts his grip on the bat and holds the lighter out in front of him, flame hovering. The lights continue to flicker, the creature continues to scream outside, until suddenly everything stops. Their eyes dart towards the yoyo, waiting for the string to pull tight but nothing happens. There is only silence, not a sound behind the door, and the lights remain on, bright and yellow.

Jughead takes a deep breath before opening the door, peering around it to check outside. He finds nothing. The trailer is totally still, no movement at all, and the bear trap sits in front of the door, untouched.

They head back out into the living room and together they wait.

 

 

 

The biohazard suit is bulky and uncomfortable, limiting their movements as they venture out into the Upside Down.

FP can't believe what he is seeing. It's his home, the town he has lived in all his life, but it's looks nothing like it should. It is cold and lifeless, a wasteland. The air around them is hazy, unclean, like a dusty attic.

They continue on, walking away from the alternate version of the laboratory that towers behind them and towards the Southside. Keller leads the way, flashlight in hand. They don't have much time - they need to reach the trailer park soon.

 

 

 

"This is crazy. This is crazy," Archie mumbles, pacing around the living room.

Betty loads up the gun and slips it into her jacket before approaching Archie.

"It's going to come back, so you need to leave."

Archie doesn't say anything, just stares at her with wide, terrified eyes. She doesn't blame him. It terrified her, too, and she had seen that thing once before. This was all very new to him.

He is out the door a minute later, running towards his car. He pulls the door open and turns back to the trailer, a lump forming in his throat as he watches the light behind the blinds flicker on and off.

Inside, Betty and Jughead circle the living room, back-to-back, trying to cover all angles. Suddenly the lights cut out, covering them in darkness and a chill runs up Betty's spine as a familiar, metallic growl echoes around the room.

Neither of them moves fast enough, spinning around just as the Demogorgon lunges towards Jughead and pins him onto the floor. Jughead struggles against it, trying to free himself as Betty shoots at the creature's back.

It rises then, turns it attention to Betty, stalking towards her as she continues to shoot. Jughead feels around for the bat, unable to see anything in the dark, when he hears a shrill shriek and then a wounded whimper. He looks up to see Archie stood in front of the Demogorgon, baseball bat in hand and the nail-embedded end buried inside the creature's face.

He wrestles the bat out of his face and races towards the bedroom again, Betty and Jughead right behind him. The Demogorgon follows, stumbling in it's weakened state and shrieks again as the bear trap closes around it's foot.

Jughead quickly tosses the lighter at the floor, flames immediately erupting and engulfing the Demogorgon. It screams and thrashes as it burns, noises dying out as it is consumed by the fire.

Betty picks up the extinguisher and sprays the area, extinguishing the fire. A fog settles over the trailer, leaving them coughing and trying to catch their breath, until there is a small clearing.

They look down at the bear trap. It is empty, not a creature in sight, but covered in a brown liquid that sizzles and bubbles on the hot metal.

 

 

 

It's strange to see the alternate version of his trailer, even more depressing in this grey nightmare than it is in reality. They head inside first to check if Jellybean has found a place to hide.

In another dimension, Jughead, Betty and Archie watch as the string lights above them begin to turn on, one by one. They light up continuously, like a path being marked.

"Is it coming back?" he asks, frowning at the lights.

FP freezes, the voice echoing around him faint and barely audible, but undoubtedly belonging to his son.

"Jughead?" he calls aloud.

Jughead stills, eyes welling with tears as he stares up at the lights. "Dad?"

FP and Keller leave the trailer and walk towards the woods behind the house, in search of Castle Jones.

The three teenagers rush outside into the cold night air.

"Where is it going?" Betty says as they watch the street lamp beside the trailer flicker on.

The corner of Jughead's mouth ticks up into a smile. "I don't think that's the monster."

 

 

 

"Are you okay?" Polly asks, laying her hand on top of Twelve's. He nods. "Don't worry. This will all be over soon."

His gaze falls. "What about... after?"

"Well, when you're not a secret anymore, we can be a family. We'll get you real food and a bed. And Betty will be your sister. She's pretty cool for a big sister."

"Will you be my sister?" Twelve asks and Polly's nose scrunches up.

"No! No way."

His eyebrows knit together. "Why not?"

"Because..." She shrugs.

"Polly," he says firmly, levelling her with his serious, dark stare. "Friends don't lie."

She huffs. "Fine. Because... we're not like that. We're friends but we're also... we're more. Or we could be."

"More?"

She nods. "Yeah, more. Like... like the people in movies. The people who..."

She trails off, feeling embarrassed, unable to explain.

"Who what?"

Instinctively, Polly leans forward and presses her lips to Twelve. He tenses in surprises and when she pulls away his eyes are wide. She panics, shame already heating her cheeks, but relief floods through her when she sees him smile.

Light beams through the windows then and Polly looks outside to see two cars pulling into the school parking lot.

"That must be Mr Jones and the sheriff." She turns to Twelve. "Stay right here. I'll be back in a sec, okay?"

Twelve nods, watches her leave and she races out of the gym. She runs to the entrance doors and pushes them aside, hoping to catch a glimpse of Jellybean but the men outside aren't Sheriff Keller and Jellybean's dad. She doesn't recognize these people who are exiting the cars, dressed in black suits, but she knows in her gut that they are connected to the bad men.

More cars pulls into the lot and Polly runs back into the school, slamming the doors shut behind her. She had to find Twelve and the others, and get out of here.

 

 

 

FP collapses onto his knees beside Jellybean, sobs wracking through his chest as he takes his shivering, limp daughter into his arms.

"It's okay, honey. You're safe," he murmurs into her hair, burying his cheek against her head. "I've got you. You're safe."

Jellybean's eyes flutter, body weak and face pale. She is freezing to the touch, skin pale-white and cracked, but more importantly, she is alive.

FP lifts her into his arms, rests her over his shoulder. Keller smiles at the sight of her, runs his palm across her head.

"One kid down," he says. "Lets head towards the Andrews home."

 

 

 

They lock the door, shutting themselves inside the classroom. Outside, bodies lie across the floor, the lifeless bodies of all the men and women who had hurt Twelve, who had experimented on him since birth and stopped him from being a normal kid.

Val and Midge help Twelve onto table and lie him across it. His head rolls to the side, blood dripping from both nostrils as he grows weaker.

They all flinch at the sound of the inhuman screech outside. Polly rushes over to Twelve and takes his hand in hers. Lights flicker overhead, signalling the approach of the Demogorgon.

"You're okay," Polly assures him. "We're gonna get you home soon."

Twelve opens his mouth to say something but before he can, there's a loud crash behind them. Polly spins around, watching in horror as the Demogorgon breaks through the door and stalks towards them.

Val and Midge grab their sling-shots, hands shaking as they aim and shoot at the creature. It has no effect, the creature continuing to approach while it's scream echo through the school.

The girls huddle together, no idea what their next move will be. Polly squeezes her eyes shut, prays that some kind of miracle will occur and save them. They've come this far; it can't end like this.

The Demogorgon squeals, the sound pained, and Polly's eyes fly open. It stumbles, body suddenly weak. She frowns, confused by what has happened, when Twelve appears in front of them, heading straight towards the creature.

Polly runs forward to drag Twelve away but Val and Midge hold her back, even as she struggles against them.

Wind circulates around the room, almost like a tornado, as Twelve begins to scream. Blood drips from his nose, his skin so pale it's almost translucent. The Demogorgon stumbles away from him, unleashing a horrifying shriek. Twelve continues on his path until the Demogorgon is back against the wall with nowhere to go.

Twelve's scream is deafening as he concentrates all of his power and destroys the Demogorgon. The creature is torn apart, bursting into millions of tiny pieces. They disappear before they reach the ground but a sticky substance remains, staining the floor.

The lights come back on, bright and harsh, just as Twelve collapses to the floor. The girls run over and Polly falls to her knees, taking Twelve into her arms.

"It's all over now," Polly murmurs, cradling his head in her lap. "You're coming home. I promise."

 

 

 

Jellybean smiles weakly as her father and brother come into focus, their eyes glassy but their smiles wide.

"Hey, kid. You feeling okay?" her dad murmurs, gripping her hand in his.

She nods. "I'm okay." She licks her dry lips. "I missed you guys."

Jughead grins even as tears spill down his cheeks.

"We missed you, too."

Her friends race into the room as soon as Jellybean has had some food, refusing to be held back any longer. She looks thrilled to see them, giggling as they crowd around her and sweep her up into a group hug.

Twelve hangs back, watching the girls reunite, until Polly turns towards him.

"Come on, Twelve. Come meet Jellybean."

Jughead can't wipe the affectionate smile off his face as he watches his sister's best friends pure joy, so happy to see her again. Once again, he is struck by how lucky she is to be surrounded by friends who love her so much.

There's a soft pressure on his hand then and he looks down to see Betty standing beside him, a soft smile on her face as she slips her hand into his.

He links their fingers together and sighs, feeling close to content.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ix.

_three weeks later_

Jughead leads Jellybean up the basement steps towards the front door of the Cooper home, the shouts of her four best friends echoing behind them. He offers a quick, "Merry Christmas," to Mrs Cooper as he passes through the kitchen and into the hallway.

"Jug, wait up!"

Jughead looks up as Betty skips down the stairs, dressed in a delicate, white dress. Her hair is pulled back from her face, face bright and glowing, free of any fear or pain. She smiles at him, wide and genuine, and Jughead's stomach knots up at the sight of her.

"Go on out to the car," he murmurs to Jellybean before he turns to Betty. "Hey, Betts."

"I just wanted to give you this," she says, holding out a box wrapped in shiny red paper.

"Oh. Thanks. I, uh, I didn't get you anything."

"That's okay," she smiles, then nods to the box. "Come on. Open it."

He tears the paper off to reveal a cardboard box. He opens it up, peering inside, and smiles as he pulls out a camera. It's new and expensive, better than the camera he currently has.

"This is too much, Betty. I can't take this."

"It's a gift," she argues. She steps closer, closing the small distance between them. "Merry Christmas, Jughead," she says quietly.

"Merry Christmas, Betts," he replies, just as quiet.

And then she's leaning up on her tiptoes to press her lips to his, a soft, gentle meeting their lips. It's his first kiss - an almost embarrassing admission at the age of seventeen - but he wouldn't change it for the world.

Her hand cups his cheek, thumb smoothing across his cheek as her lips move against his. He kisses her back, tentative and inexperienced, but she doesn't seem to mind, pulling away with a beautiful smile on her face.

"Do you wanna go to the movies this Friday?" he asks quickly, desperate to get the words out before he loses his nerve.

"Sure," she grins. "Pick me up at seven."

Jughead leaves the Cooper house with a small smile on his lips and his gift tucked under his arm. As he walks down the path he spots Archie to his right, stepping out of his car and heading up the path to his house. His mouth ticks up at the corners as he nods at Jughead. Jughead nods back.

Inside, Betty bites her lip to smother the giddy smile on her face and walks into her living room.

Ethel quirks one eyebrow. "You're blushing! I'm guessing Jughead finally asked you out."

Betty shrugs, coyly, "Maybe," and joins her on the couch.

She tucks her hand through Ethel's arm, snuggling close. Ethel picks up the TV remote.

"So, what are we watching?"

Jellybean giggles as he climbs into the car.

"You totally love Betty."

"What?" Jughead scoffs. "What are you talking about?" He side-eyes her. She raises her eyebrows. "Shut up."

She giggles again, and although it's at his expense, the sound is music to his ears. He's never taking that sound for granted ever again.

"Alright, lets put some music on. Your pick."

Her eyes light up. "Really?" He nods and starts up the car.

He pulls away and drives down Betty's street, leaving the Northside of town. They pass houses covered in string lights, twinkling in the dark night.

Outside, snow begins to fall, and inside the car, a familiar song begins to play.

" _Darling you've got to let me know..._ "

 

 


End file.
